Dubrillion

[Piccolo]

Piccolo received the message and spoke to those gathered.

 

"I will go visit this Arkady Suul. Will will accompany me. The rest of you complete your mission, and let me know if you get into too much trouble.

The base will be put on high alert until one of us returns."

 

The Howling Runner headed for Tatooine.

[handofthrawn]

OOC: I don't know where Kyu is, so we'll just leave without him.

 

IC: ShadowFett watched Piccolo leave and spoke to Searcy, "I'll leave a message for Kyu to come to Tatooine. We need to get moving before this Vash Mammon character leaves the desert world."

 

So saying, he boarded his ship. Speaking this time to his droid, 2277, he said, "We're on the hunt. Be watching the newslines for the name 'Vash Mammon'."

 

The droid nodded very humanly and Fett lifted off, expecting Searcy to be following him closely. Dropping a comm message to be sent to Kyu, he turned the ship towards space and blasted away. Soon he entered the mottled security and privacy of hyperspace.

[Pinckz]

"Alright," Will says as he heads off with piccolo into space towards his home planet tatooine.

[Forn Dodonna]

((OOC: I haven't a clue where the BS fleet is at the moment, so I'm posting this here.))

 

A highly encrypted comm is sent to the Black Sun fleet from the Rebel Alliance.

 

--highly-encrypted comm--

 

Greetings, gentlemen

 

The time has come to retake the world of Coruscant from Imperial hands. Our sources confirm that the planet is reletively defenseless; their orbital defenses have been destroyed, and the vast majority of their forces have been evacuated.

 

We ask that you be ready to meet with our forces at Gala in approximately 24 hours. Once we have gathered our forces, we can begin the battle.

 

--end comm--

[The Black Sun Armada]

The Black Sun Armada emerged over Dubrillion. The task was immediately begun to rebuild the SD and Frigate, as well as the smaller fighters.

 

Piccolo entered the Howling Runner and broke off from the Armada. He sent a comm to Jag and ShadowFett.

 

"We'll wait here for further orders."

[handofthrawn]

ShadowFett recieved the comm moments after exiting hyperspace. He lands the Night of Vengeance on one of the landing pads outside the Black Sun complex that highlighted the planet.

 

Home sweet home, he thought, allowing himself a bit of a dark smile. It hadn't been quite as long as he had though since he had last been here, but it still seemed like it had been quite some time.

 

However, there was unfinished buisness he had to attend to. He picked up the messenger droid that he had readied while he had been on Gala. He let it go after recording a message and it rocketed off into space and entered hyperspace en route to Sanity's End, or what was left of it.

 

Fett knew that it was a little late, but perhaps he would still get paid for it. It didn't matter all that much to him, but a million credits was a lot of money.

[Capt. Phillep]

A heavily encrypted and untraceable Comm comes in for the Black Sun Armada...

 

"Agents of the Black Sun, this is Admiral Phillep, our two organizations have crossed paths before on both sides of the spectrum, but Lord Geki and Lord Daisaku were both allies of mine. I request your assistance in this next endeavour. There are following encrypted coordinates and directions (Piccolo check PM)."

 

The Comm is cut short, afterwards.

[The Black Sun Armada]

The Black Sun Captain forwards the comm to Piccolo. As he does so, he feels a deep pang in his heart. Somewhere he knows several brave men have died.

[JaggedFelII]

As Jag exited space above the planet, he headed for the landing pads. Upon reaching them, he took off his helmet and took a deep breath to calm himself. Exiting his ship, he climbed down slowly, deep in thought. He pulled out a hydrospanner and started to fix the small damage he had taken in the battles, both the one at Sullust, and the one from the Golan III.

[Piccolo]

Piccolo descended the Howling Runner to the surface, and entered the base. The hunter cleared out the armory, ordering privacy as he upgraded his armor. He had had the idea for a long time to add an element to both of his wrists, just above his comlink. Each side would have a retractable blade. The blades had a track underneath them, so that on contact a small capsule would be released into the enemy's skin. The capsules each contained an explosive charge.

 

Brilliant.

 

Satisfied Piccolo moved to the training area. He was burning for some challenging combat. He opened his comm to Jag and ShadowFett.

 

"If you two aren't too busy, I think we should work on some training."

[handofthrawn]

ShadowFett received the comm. He raised his eyebrows at the thought. He was yearning for combat as much as Piccolo was, it seemed. He would enjoy a match or two.

 

He headed down for the arena. There was an element missing from his armor, as well, and he had a pretty good idea of what it was. He needed something affecting even more area than a Rail Detenator or granade, that was somehow unblockable as well.

 

Piccolo had such a weapon, and Fett would ask his permission before mimicking the form of defense and attack. He saw Piccolo en route and stopped when he reached him. "I'd love to train a bit, Piccolo," he said. He looked at the other operative and noticed a glint of steel where there had not been one before. Piccolo had installed blades of sorts on his wrists. "I see you have a little upgrade. As a matter of fact, I was going to ask your permission for one of my own.

 

"I have seen you use your sonic emplacements most effectively in battle multiple times," Fett continued. "I'd like a set of my own."

 

He left it at that. Had he been anyone else he would have said a little more, but in this case what was said was enough.

[Piccolo]

His Sonic Resonance Armor was his favorite piece of weaponry, but he had no problems sharing the details of how he acquired it with Fett. Fett had the two qualities Piccolo valued most, loyalty and efficiency.

 

"I purchased the armor from Kheldar vos Corelli specially made. Unfortunately, we do not have the technology to reproduce it. Corelli should be cooperative if you ask him, though. But there are a few drawbacks. It cannot be bound to a cortosis coating, and upgrades on it have to be done sparingly, so as not to interfere with its functions. That's why I rarely wear it except in battle with a large number of enemies. If you still want it, he would be the man to contact."

[handofthrawn]

"I shall consider it," Fett said. He didn't all that much like the idea of wearing armor besides his Mandalorian armor into battle, but the sheer efficiency of the sonic emplacements tempted him considerably.

 

This indecision was undetectable by Piccolo, and he did not show it in his voice, which always seemed to remain calm and neutral behind the accent he had picked up from his "father", the Mandalorian who had bought him so long ago.

 

Presently, ShadowFett's thoughts turned to the training Piccolo had suggested. "Let us train, Piccolo. I've been wanting to work a little more on combat recently," he said.

 

He started heading down towards the training arena.

 

OOC: Jag may or may not post for a few days so we should probably start without him.

[Piccolo]

Piccolo nodded, clearly anticipating this workout. It would be a reasonably even match. As always, the outcome was never in doubt to the confident hunter, but the challenge would be acceptable. After all, Piccolo had personally seen to it ShadowFett receive the best training. It was not merely a run of the mill operative he had been molding, but a replacement should anything happen to him. Piccolo had made his wishes on this matter clear to Mr. Daisaku, and would make it a point to do so again.

 

They arrived at the arena, and Piccolo tested his force pike in his hand. He wore full Eclipse armor and complement of weapons. It was understood neither would be seriously injured, but Piccolo intended them to push the limits as much as possible. He rolled his head to each side,

 

"Let's get this started."

[handofthrawn]

Seeing the more experienced hunter's selection of the force pike, ShadowFett slowly drew his vibroblade, careful not to grab the one he had crafted out of cortosis in the double sheath behind it. Cortosis was a form of rock extremely weak against anything besides lightsabers.

 

The Mandalorian went straight ahead with the first attack, a right to left diagonal sweep ending up near the ground. Piccolo parried with relative ease, but Fett kept the motion moving into a fluid attack in which his foot came around and also met the pike in its body. Fett followed that attack with a reverse on his pivot foot and another strike from the opposite side with his blade once again.

 

And, once again, Piccolo turned the attack away. Fett took a step backwards and lowered himself nearly casually into a defensive stance, his vibroblade in his hands near the left side of his waist with the blade crossing his chest to end a bit above his right shoulder, a several centimeters before his helmet mask.

 

In his mind he was running over the impressive arsenal that his Mandaloiran battlearmor secreted. He imagined in such a fight against a superior combatant ShadowFett would end up using several of his tricks and inventing at least a few new ones pending on Piccolo's fighting style.

[Piccolo]

Piccolo could tell ShadowFett was holding back trying to feel his former mentor out. Piccolo wasn't going to give him that chance. He ran forward raising his weapon. As expected, ShadowFett moved to block the shot. But as he came forward Piccolo fired his blaster pack. He flew up a very short distance before deactivating his pack as he twisted into a somersault. Fett corrected with suprising quickness, slashing upwards, but Piccolo was just out of reach for his human arms. The hunter's longer arms stretched downward slamming the butt of the pike into Fett's helmet. Fett fell forward as Piccolo landed on his feet.

 

Now that he had started to take an appreciation for battle technique, Piccolo had taken to making his moves more thought out and complex. A side affect of his partially mechanized brain he supposed. Either way he hoped he'd given Fett an incentive for more forceful attacks as he turned to face the warrior. Not surprisingly Fett was already on his feet.

[handofthrawn]

ShadowFett rebounded from the attack by planting his hands on the ground and then swinging his feet over his head to bring him balanced and facing his commander and superior. He was not one to fight with blades, and he knew it.

 

Sheathing his vibroblade, Fett produced his Westar-34 blaster pistols. He fired a few shots at Piccolo, but they went wide. He was not yet trying to strike the winning blow, though he knew that if Piccolo had felt threatened by the bolts, then he would have found some way to deal with them.

 

The real purpose of the attack was revealed when Fett found himself with the time he needed to activate his rocket pack and send himself backwards through the air, putting some distance between himself and the half-trandoshan.

 

Now that he had room, ShadowFett knew that the Westars were not his only option for the certain scenario. He placed them back in their holsters and activated the repulsorlifts on his jetpack, allowing him to hover some several meters off the ground.

 

Next, the Mandalorian armed his rail detenator. The rail detenator was a gun that fired explosive charges that bursted into a four-meter-wide fire ball on impact with their target or at a three-second delay, depending on the setting.

 

Fett had used the weapon only once or twice, and was really in the experimental phase with it. He pulled the trigger, firing low at Piccolo. The charge made a distinctive sizzling sound as it flew, and it struck Piccolo in the leg, it's three metal claws snapping forward to clamp to the Eclipse armor the Operative wore. Piccolo had three seconds to not only detach the strong clamps, but get the charge more than four meters away.

 

Efficiency was doing a difficult task in a short amount of time with only a few items and weapons. ShadowFett hoped that this weapon would only serve to improve his own efficiency.

[Pinckz]

Will came wandering out of the howling runner, and he saw the fight. Even though it was still just between shadow fett and Picollo he still took precautions. Also since Will didn't want them to destroy the stadium any more. He took 4 gizmos out of his coat pocket, and he quickly dropped them at the four corners of the stadium. He pressed a button and all of a sudden the gap betwwen the machines was filled with a red force field box. it extended 4o ft into the sky and it filled the perimeter of the stadium. He then tried to say to Piccolo that it woudn't hurt him but he forgot it was sound-proof so he tried to gesture to him.

[handofthrawn]

OOC: Due to the crash much of Piccolo's and my duel is gone. That duel still lives on in our hearts and we are going to continue posting as if it was still right there above this post.

 

IC: ShadowFett was recovering quickly. It didn't take a whole lot of bacta to recover a few wounds and a broken rib, despite the incredible amount that it had hurt at the time.

 

Fett was standing again in only an hour or so. He stretched and found no trace of the pain that he had sustained in his long fight with Piccolo. A fight that he had managed to win, a feat that he had never expected to be able to accomplish.

 

The Mandalorian gained a large leap of self-confidence in that battle, and knew for sure that he was improving to a point where soon he would be considered among the ranks of those he had only looked up to in the past.

 

He looked over at his mentor, who was also recovering at a quick rate as well. The helf-trandoshan was very powerful, and the details of the battle were still coming back to Fett as he sat. The tearing away of the rail charge, the chipping of the Mandalorian armor...

 

Fett looked down. He would carry those chips in his armor for forever as a reminder of this day. The main result of his victory, however, was respect. He respected Piccolo even more now than he did before, having been on the other end of the hunter's weapons.

[Pinckz]

Will walked over and leaned on the wall while he made modifications to a couple of his machines. As he was doing this he though of new and inspiring ideas for new inventions that would continue to enthrall people for ages.

[Piccolo]

Within a few hours, Piccolo's Doshan DNA had healed over the gaping wound. The reptilian part of him had its advantages, even if it sometimes blinded him in combat. ShadowFett had outsmarted Piccolo. That realization stung, but Piccolo had contributed much to shaping ShadowFett, so pride soon replaced it. He felt he could count on ShadowFett more than ever.

 

Piccolo spoke to Will. He wore his normal attire, his armor was being repaired by Black Sun technicians.

 

"I'm glad to see you still around. The Black Sun will soon be able to complete your training and deliver you back to Wyhl. I'm afraid I must attend to a few things before we can restart, though."

 

The first thing Piccolo did was check the status of the Black Sun ships being reconstructed overhead. He was glad to find out they had been completed, and returned to the fleet. Piccolo asked ShadowFett to meet privately with him in Piccolo's secondary quarters on the base. There was a mission, if Fett was interested . . .

[Pinckz]

" thats alright with me" Will said while he continued to work on his gizmos.

[handofthrawn]

ShadowFett gladly headed down to Piccolo's secondary quarters. Whatever the reason, it would almost certainly mean not having to find some way to occupy himself for much longer.

 

Although he had just finished the most difficult fight of his life, he was already fully healed and ready to move on. The road to perseverence, he reminded himself, was not one large test but scores of smaller ones.

 

The prospect of a mission excited him. Although in his past hunts he had not been extremely successful, he was looking forward to having a task laid out before him that would test him in multiple aspects. Combat, tracking, and second-guessing were all areas that he wanted continued improvement on.

 

A Mandalorian was never done training. Always there was some way to get better, some way to become more known and eventually widely known for skill, efficiency, and ingenuity. This was what Fett wanted.

 

He reached Piccolo's quarters and entered. "Hello," was all he said before placing his left hand on his right gauntlet in an almost-relaxed yet very capable stance that he often reverted to when he was waiting or in a situation not requiring a specific mood.

[Piccolo]

Piccolo offered Fett a glass of water, before pouring himself one. He downed it in one quick gulp. The half Doshan absentmindedly looked over the report on the successful reconstruction of the Armada ships.

 

"We haven't had too much luck with these fleet battles as of late have we? We're not fleet commanders, we're bounty hunters. I never signed on to do that sort of work, and I doubt you did either."

 

Piccolo set the reports down.

 

"I need help commanding the fleet. It will soon be needed in action. Your assignment is to familiarize yourself with its designs and its various crews."

 

Piccolo was sure ShadowFett had expected a more combat based mission, all Piccolo had provided was the promise of combat.

 

"You remember when we were supposed to destroy Keiran Valoria right? I still want him captured, it's as much personal as anything, ever since he and his Master escaped us on Trulalis. Try to keep an eye on our contacts on Coruscant, if he enters any areas not controlled by the Jedi or Rebels I want to know."

[Darth Searcy]

From above Dubrilliuon a freighter blasts toward the Black Sun facility. Its pilot focusing all four eyes straight forward. Within minutes, the red hot freighter had landed and the mutant Searcy walks into the facility.

 

Where is Piccolo?

[handofthrawn]

Fett turned down the glass of water, preferring to keep his helmet on. He listened to Piccolo's orders.

 

Once the half-trandoshan had finished, ShadowFett spoke, "As for the fleet, I always wanted to attempt such a job as commanding a fleet. I'll certainly be ready for it when you need me." Star Destroyers were very different from starfighters in that one had a greatly reduced control of them. However, commanding a fleet employed very detailed instructions on placement and attack orders. Choosing targets could make the difference between victory and defeat in a fleet battle.

 

"And concerning the Jedi. I have as much as a grudge as you do, if that's what you would call it. I'll keep you updated on his location as much as I can," he said, all in the same measured and accented tones.

 

"I guess," he continued, "I'll get to work immediately." The Mandalorian stood and exited the room. He headed to his own quarters.

 

Fleet buisness was interesting enough, he soon found out while studying the components of the Black Sun Fleet. The fleet was composed of a mix of Imperial and Rebel ships, each with unique properties. The Mon Cal Star Cruisers could take a beating, whereas the Star Destroyers were more suited to giving one.

[Piccolo]

An operative directed Searcy to Piccolo's quarters.

[Darth Searcy]

Michael stepped through the doors into Piccolos office. As soon as he stooed in a vision flashed through his eyes.

 

The mutant fell to his knees and clutched his heart. The mutation virus had finallyt caught up with hi. His heart had mutated into something that blood kills. But before he died he muttered his vision to Piccolo.

 

Do not fret over my death. Another will come to replace me. One with scales and my abilities. One you have met before. And here is what I collected for the bounty on Vash Mammon.

 

He handed Piccolo the bag with the credits inside. One lastthought also crossed his mind. With the last of his strength he sent his only weapon his lightsaber, ripping through his arm and into space. It would land on a distant planet. One where a certain individual would need it.

[Piccolo]

Piccolo watched the mutant die. He ordered Searcy's body be given a proper cremation and ceremony. The hunter felt no emotion at Searcy's death. He could not afford to care for anyone even something as minor as friendship or pity. But Piccolo did regret the loss of a skilled warrior. He only hoped Searcy's vision was real.

[handofthrawn]

After digging around for a while, ShadowFett came upon some information sent from Mandalore. It contained many of the Mandalorian tactics of fleet combat. He remembered many of them from long ago during his childhood, but it was nice to refresh his memory.

 

The Mandalorians had primarily used capitol ships to launch Basilisk War Droids down onto the planet they were raiding. The capitol ships would then create a perimeter over the ground battle, warding off defensively any challenge and backup.

 

Their capitol ships had been a bit smaller than the more modern ships, and lesser in armaments as well. Fett learned from their formations only to a limited extent, for he had to translate those ships to their modern equivalent.

 

Mandalorian Admirals almost never attacked offensively or met in large fleet ingagements, for they primarily relied on attacking and taking over worlds with very little navy and weaker in technical progress than most. The taking of these worlds was what gave them their feared name, and once on ground they could easily defeat even the best Republic forces.

 

However, that did not help ShadowFett much now. He needed to learn deep space tactics, and the Mandalorians did not invent such tactics until the War with the Republic, which they eventually lost for that reason.